The penhold, the shakehand and the pimpled hitter

We know enough about table tennis to know that different people hold their paddles with different grips — and that is where our knowledge ends (our brother's mother in law kicked our ass in ping pong earlier this year). But only after reading this post by Shanghai blogger (and very sporadic Shanghaiist contributor) Micah Sittig, did we know that the two main grips were called the "penhold" and the "shakehand." And a little more digging (ie, Answers.com) showed us there are even more sub-grips under those two main classifications — you've got your "looper," your "counter driver," your "all-around attacker," your "attacking chopper" and, our favorite, the "pimpled hitter" (we think we've seen that guy play on TV).

Anyway, Micah wanted to know what was more successful, the shakehand or the penhold, so he listed the top ranked male players and mentioned what kind of grips they all use. The results? Seven out of 10 use the shakehand, including World No. 1 Wang Liqin of China (pictured).